During the month of October workplaces in the Western Isles were invited to “pink days” where they wore pink clothing and organised tea parties, themed games and information stalls to raise to raise awareness of women’s health and cancers. Breast self-examination models were also given out to groups to learn how they should be examining themselves and the things they should be checking for.

Quotes from women who attended awareness sessions within their workplaces included:

“We had some really good discussions using the models, they mostly started out quite amusing as staff were quite surprised I was offering them a breast to feel but then became more serious. I spoke to 14 of our staff who tried them and also myself. What surprised us was that no one was able to find all of the lumps and when told where they all were they were surprised how difficult it was to find the deepest one. I also pointed out to them the 5th lump that you are not able to physically feel, a number of our staff were surprised by this as they assumed if you had any form of breast cancer you would have a lump that you can feel”

“It did raise how many of our staff have been affected by breast cancer, whether this had been scares themselves or if it was in their families or friends. We also noted a number of our younger staff, whilst being aware of the issue don’t check themselves very often, or even at all. One said she has never checked whilst another said she only remembers to check herself when something like this is raised”.

“Having the breast models really made us think about the importance of self examination, it was brilliant and the staff were very open and honest. There were quite a few giggles at the beginning but the room went silent once they started to feel the lumps”

“This has been a fantastic resource, we now plan to see if we can do a similar exercise on testicular cancer”